Collective Help
by Wordgawk
Summary: A forgotten chest troubles Dante when he tries to open it. Vergil and Nero assist in their own ways.


**Author's note: I had this image of the guys and somehow this story was written. **

**Story loosely takes place after DMC4. Vergil is here. **

* * *

Collective Help

All right, if this heap of junk didn't crack open in the next 15 minutes, Dante was going back to his partially eaten and mostly cold pizza laying enticingly on his desk. For the past half hour he had been delicately working on getting an old trunk unlocked without annihilating its hinges.

Sentimentality was the box's name and Dante couldn't bear to destroy it with weapons. Unfortunately, when it came to delicate matters he wasn't exactly Mr. Tact. What problem could not be solved with a sword blade or a pistol blast? This one, evidently. Dante had done little more than glare at the innocent chest.

Outside the front doors, he heard a muffled, conversing voice approaching. "Yeah, so he kicked the demon and nailed it right in the crotch. I didn't think it had a crotch."

That curious scamp Nero.

"Do these kinds of issues always bother you?" the cool voice of logic named Vergil replied. A jangle of keys sounded and a snick later, the two of them walked through the opened door.

"Nero, you're looking more beautiful than ever. Have you been cutting back on the fatty foods? You're so slim and trim," Dante jovially greeted as though he hadn't seen Nero for ages. It had only been four days.

Nero responded in kind. "Why, thank you, Dante. I have been eating my salads every lunch."

"Oh, good." Dante smiled at him, then noticed his brother staring at both of them with dubiousness reserved for the mentally unbalanced.

"What, you never heard of hellos before, Verg?"

"Hellos involve that choice word, yes? Such as, 'Hello, Nero, what a pleasure to see you.' " Vergil stepped over to the silly man who was his younger brother, contrary to the mature stubble on his cheeks.

"Bor-ing. You're such a stiff."

"I discovered being a 'stiff' gets me further than your vulgar behavior when public affairs are concerned."

"Further? Just what _have_ you been telling that girl who works at that pie shop?" Some blocks away, a cutie who worked at Dante's new spot of heaven liked to eye up Vergil whenever they headed inside together. Vergil was oblivious, interpreting her careful looks as weapon weariness -the Devil May Cry office was in a bit of a shady neighborhood, after all- but her doey eyes couldn't bypass Dante.

As Vergil's eyebrows creased and he looked actually unsettled, Nero cleared his throat and joined them. "Mind if either of you tell me what's going on for me to make it all the way here from Fortuna?" He then spotted the hunk of box. "Don't tell me this was the reason?"

"Partly. I wanted to hear someone else yammer in my ear instead of Bro, here." Dante chuckled when Vergil playfully scuffed him on the arm before leaving the room for the kitchen.

Nero shrugged. "Thanks for the invite. Kyrie's been actin' kinda... ah, never mind. I'm happy to be here."

"Ooh, troubles in paradise?"

Nero's face began burning a bright red and Dante took a rapt interest at the kid's reaction to whatever bugged him. "You ok?"

"Yep. So about your problem-"

"About _your_ problem. That seems way more interesting than mine. Ky-ri-eeee." Dante sang her name. Nero turned even more cherry red and Dante knew he'd struck gold.

Shifting from foot to foot, Nero scratched his cheek in discomfort. He opened his mouth to confess when Vergil took that moment to reenter the room. His appearance stopped Nero's confession.

Dante took his turn to glare at Vergil, who held two glasses of water in his hands and was sipping at one. "Way to ruin things, man."

"Excuse me?" Vergil held out the other glass to Nero, who was all too happy for the interruption and began gulping the liquid.

"Can you ask him?" Dante directed to Vergil as if asking for a favor. Dante whispered the exact question he wanted Nero to hear. A question to really rare the engines.

The quizzical expression on Vergil's face degenerated into an ugly scowl. Vergil sighed loudly. "See, this is what I meant by your stupidity."

"_C'mon!_"

"No."

Dante groaned. Of course he'd do it himself. No, wait, if he wanted to clean up a mess of shattered glass on the floor, he'd ask. Which he didn't.

Instead, Dante followed Vergil's advice and said simply to Nero, "You'll feel better if you told-"

Nero blurted out his woes before Dante finished the sentence. "She wants kids!"

Silence.

"With you?" Vergil carefully cast out first. One could never be too sure.

Outside, a car rumbled in idle. Nero flushed deeper and nodded. He threw back the remainder of his water into his mouth.

"Oh my," was Dante's articulate response. He hadn't puttered long enough in a serious relationship to even head down the road of long-term connection.

"Congratulations." Vergil's face was so honestly deadpan that Dante burst out laughing.

Nero covered his face which had long gone past embarrassment. "There, you happy, you oaf? Let's not go on about it." Dante's chortling soon died down, but not before sticking in some wedding cake and honeymoon jokes. Vergil was considerate enough not to join his brother's teasing.

Nero glanced around as though studying the room for the first time. "Where is everyone? Isn't it usually a zoo in here?"

"You mean the girls? Trish and Lady went to go max out a credit card at the mall. God, I wish Lady hadn't shown Trish the ropes of shopping. Lady was ok by herself but then you add another female into the mix and hell breaks out."

"I wonder if Kyrie would have fun with them," Nero mused automatically, earning him an aghast look from Dante.

Vergil tilted his head to Nero and tsked. "You've given Dante a heart attack."

Dante suddenly straightened up at an amusing muse. "Y'know, Kyrie hanging out with them isn't so bad."

"Yeah?" Nero raised a suspecting brow at the man who was already smiling. Even Vergil joined in with a curious brow, though Dante detected a subtle smirk brewing. Vergil knew him too well.

"Sure. I mean, can you imagine the lingerie tips another gal would bring to the table? It's good to be up-to-date on these things."

One flying glass whizzed past Dante's mane of silver and a dull crash on the floor followed. Damn. But the shades of crimson not induced by rage Dante was seeing on the guy... all worth a little broken cup.

Vergil perched himself on a corner of Dante's massive and messy desk, avoiding the litter of pokable pens by pushing them aside. "Don't you think of anything else, Brother?"

Dante's gaze flew back to his locked trunk. "Yep. Like what I kept in here."

"I hope you're kidding." Vergil set down his drinking glass.

"Geez, you don't know what's in there?" Nero added, rather testily.

"Cool your jets, you two. It's been in storage for a couple years," Dante countered with placating hands held up. He wracked his memory for the box's contents but all he got was empty space.

"Loosen up the hinges," Vergil recommended. "Oil."

"Lube," Dante agreed, nodding. He looked pointedly at Nero. "You've got some, right?"

Another glass flew at Dante's head, only this one with water in it. Dante dodged the rush of wetness and shrapnel. He was getting evasion practice.

Vergil's slightly peeved shrug at losing his perfectly fine drink coupled with the retort, "Shouldn't you be the one who has that?"

Dante cleared this throat. Personal effects were classified information.

He began to half-heartedly rummage. "I've gotta have engine grease or somethin' hanging around here." Real mechanic's lube.

"Good luck," Nero mumbled, crossing his arms.

All right, so this place wasn't a mechanic's dream space, but Dante was positive he'd find something that would to get that chest open. "I know I had some kind of oil around here. Just need a minute to find it."

"More like an hour. Do you even use the stuff?"

"Did you notice that motorbike parked outside?"

"That old heap?"

"That's my pride and joy you mock."

"I see no tools in here."

"Like I said, I've gotta search for it."

Among the increasingly loud shouting battering between Nero and Dante was a low, almost monotonous chanting. Dante didn't pick up on it right away until Nero stopped his near yelling when he heard it too.

Vergil stood at the trunk, a hefty tome opened in hand. He was murmuring an incantation of some sort off the page he read from.

Dante cheered. Why didn't he think of using a spell? No demolishing of trusty storage cases, here. He stepped over as Vergil's tones descended to muteness.

A clear click sounded. Followed by another. And one more. Vergil glanced at Dante, who shrugged. Whatever he kept in there he must have wanted it good and tight to use a spell.

A final clack sounded and there was no other noise.

"You're a genius." Dante said his thanks to Vergil, who gave a curt nod. Vergil was about to step aside for Dante to access his box when the large lid slammed open on its own. A high-pitched cackle surprised them, especially Vergil when something substantially large and shadowy flew out of the chest and bowled him over to the floor.

The creature purred as the black shadows slowly decloaked its upper body. "My, my, my, handsome, you've finally decided to let me out of that stuffy hell? What took so long- wait, you're lovely but you're not quite him."

Vergil's dazed eyes focused on the demon clumped on top of him. The coalescing shadows revealed her pale face... and her voluptuous assets. Fire red hair and catty eyes. He snapped to attention upon recognizing her.

So did Dante. "Nevan?"

Nevan, once a useful and trusted Devil Arm for Dante, seemed confused when she looked over at him and then back at Vergil. "There are two of you now?"

"I'm still me, baby. This is Vergil. You two probably met before in the tower, right?"

Nevan was already playing with Vergil's chin when Vergil replied without enthusiasm, "Walking by is not a meeting."

"I remember." Nevan began cooing, pushing her ample bosom into Vergil's close face. "You didn't speak to me at all. Your beautiful eyes were too intent on- what was it again?"

"A ritual." The flat words summoned a whirl of uncomfortable memories for Dante in the second it took Vergil to say it. The second passed, as those events were in the past.

Nevan peered at Dante. "You were involved too, darling." She gasped at an insight, then growled at him. "Hey, why was I locked up all this time? You're so mature now. You've become an even handsomer devil from when I last lay eyes on you."

Vergil, still flat on his back, did a mental calculation and spoke in awe, "Dante, has it been that many years?"

"Years?" Nevan repeated in a small voice, staring at Vergil, then at Dante. "_Years?!_" Her shriek made Dante wince. He really didn't want to make that calculation himself to affirm exactly how long it had been.

Dante sighed patiently. "I got busy. I went to many places and became more busy. Fortuna, for one. This kid's home." He craned his chin over his shoulder.

Nero, who had watched the unfolding scene with growing confusion, started at being spoken to. "Wha-?"

Nevan's slitted eyes swiveled to Nero. She observed him for a moment. Licked her lips.

Vergil grunted when her weight lifted off his torso. Nevan slinked her way to Nero. He began to sweat and babble something incoherent as he backed up.

Dante crouched next to his brother, who had propped himself up on his elbow. "Disappointed she didn't pick you?"

"Are you disappointed she didn't pick you?"

Nero was turning a familiar shade of pink when Nevan draped herself over his shoulder and tickled his cheek.

Dante chuckled. How forgetful Vergil was. "She did, remember?"

- THE END -


End file.
